Environmentally smart animal agriculture and integrated advisory services ameliorate the negative effects of climate change on production

Abstract

The objective is to discern how Charles Darwin's Origin of species (1859) and the theory of natural selection and evolutionary biology-'a grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die'-are core to achieving environmentally and climate-smart, economically viable, sustainable animal agriculture in a changing climate. Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' theory implies inherent comparative advantage of survivors over the succumbed in any given environment. An animal's phenotype (P) results from interaction of its genotype (G) and the environment (E), expressed as P = G x E. Human migration has transferred livestock breeds from places of origin to distant continents and agro-ecological zones, far from where they have inherent comparative production advantage. For example, crossbreeds of Bos taurus and Bos indicus have higher average performance than median of either parent population. However, the heterotic effect of hybrids is associated with loss of environmental adaptation compared with parent populations. Indigenous breeds, their phenotypes and ecotypes thrive best in distinct environments, ceteris paribus. An environment is the sum total of conditions that influence animal productivity in the habitat. These include nutrition, genetics, disease, exposure to parasites, management practices, climate, rainfall, humidity, heat and cold stressors, and advisory services. Hybrids lose some adaptive capacity compared with parents, and require habitat modifications if they are to express their fullest genetic potential. In the light of this and of global warming challenges to livestock production, it is scientifically and technically prudent to exploit the inherent comparative production advantages of indigenous genotypes, phenotype and ecotypes, when mitigating climate change, more so in low-input animal agriculture systems of sub-Saharan Africa and at similar locations. Climate change poses multidisciplinary challenges that require integrated collaborative cross-discipline research, extension and training to provide holistic solutions.

Strategies for Sustainable Use of Indigenous Cattle Genetic Resources in Southern Africa

“…Cattle on rangelands or custom feedlots can be supplemented with novel and alternative feeds, including locally available plant residues and by-products (PBP) from agro-industrial processes [62][63][64]. Compared to grazing exotic cattle breeds, indigenous breeds are a significant source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (i.e., CH 4 and NO 2 ) because of their low performance based on beef and milk yield traits [65,66]. In that context, selection of high-performing indigenous breeds [67] combined with use of bioactive-rich PBP may improve their biological and economic efficiencies, and consequently lower greenhouse emissions.…”

Genome-wise engineering of ruminant nutrition – nutrigenomics: applications, challenges, and future perspectives – A review

“…Emissions from beef and dairy production represent approximately 44% and 37% of the total ruminant-sourced GHGs, respectively, whereas buffalo and small ruminants account nearly for 11% and 8% of these GHG emissions, respectively. Various effective mitigation strategies have been proposed to date for GHG emissions of livestock production systems (Montes et al, 2013;Kadzere 2018).…”

“…Nutrigenomics holds a great potential for promising strategies such as increasing feed efficiency, reducing feed intake, utilising an animal's genetic background, rumen microbiota manipulation, and precision feeding strategies regarding an animal's genome to reduce ecological footprints of ruminant production. It is strongly expected that the applications of nutrigenomics will lower GHG emissions, both in terms of CH4 and N2O, bring about state of the art opportunities to relieve the effects of ruminant nutrition on global warming, and provide a means for 'climate-smart animal nutrition' (Kadzere, 2018). However, nutrigenomics studies conducted with the aim of unravelling interactions between diet, genome, and ruminant GHG emissions are quite uncommon in the literature.…”

Characteristics of climate-smart and commercially astute agricultural extension professionals

“…Such events impact agriculture, and yet, agriculture as a business, that must be profitable environmentally sensitive, socially responsible, and sustainable. Sustainable agriculture is farming that meets current and future societal needs for food and fibre production, preserves ecosystems' integrity, is healthy for lives, and does so by maximising the net benefit to society when all costs and benefits are considered (Altieri, 1996;Kadzere, 2018;Meissner, Scholtz & Engelbrecht, 2013). The AEP finds oneself with the added responsibility of being a change agent, who works with farmers to mitigate CC and assists them adapt.…”

“…Heat stress in livestock and crop production is a major challenge posed by CC in agriculture worldwide. The CS and commercially astute AEP should understand the impact of heat stress processes at molecular, organismal and production levels in plants and animals as summarised in Figure 3 (Paupiere, 2014) and in animals in Figure 4 (Kadzere, 2018). This requires sound natural and agricultural sciences preparation at the BSc training level.…”